Friday, August 28, 2009

Big Day, part 1

We had a day full of outings while we are on vacation.

We started the morning by reading on the porch and drinking hot coffee. But soon we packed our water bottles, a few peanut butter sandwiches, and some empty containers to prepare for a hike along the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Why empty containers? For the tiny, intensely-flavored black raspberries and for the sweet plentiful blueberries that drew many other hikers to the same path.

David filled his container with almost-black dead-ripe blueberries. I picked some, photographed some, and ate a few. Our son filled his belly as much as he filled his pail. Kuplink, kuplank, kuplunk. (Are you still up on your McCloskey?)

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After the long morning hike, we spent the afternoon at North Carolina's fantastic natural water slide, Sliding Rock. This blogger was too excited about her new camera and too scared of the icy cold water (as well as nursing a sore ankle twisted slightly on our rocky hike)--but her family had a fabulous time.

Check out this short video of Papa going down the rock:

Fun was had by all.

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We ended our afternoon with root beer floats at a local ice cream shop.

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When we came back to our cabin, we had a special evening celebration. To be continued...